Fragments of manuscripts gathered by Étienne Baluze – Codex

This collection of fragments once belonged to Étienne Baluze (1630-1718): it was the number 439 in his library's catalogue (Bibliothecae Baluzianae pars tertia, Paris, 1719). It contains fragments of medieval manuscripts as well as early modern documents, in a roughly chronological order. It should also be noticed that Baluze's contents notes, now on f. Ar, were written on the back of a slip of paper that was itself cut in a contemporary handwritten document.

The first fragment in this collection, f. 1-12, completes a fragment preserved in Lyon, BM, 788, f. 27-34, E.A. Lowe argued. It is likely this early Carolingian codex is an indigenous Lyonnais production, as are many Carolingian codices now preserved in Lyons City Library.

While working on these collections, I also noticed that Paris lat. 5288 f. 34-41 completes another fragment owned by Baluze, now in Paris, BNF, Baluze 270, f. 124-131. Together, they preserve the first two quires of a Carolingian copy of Bede's commentary on Luke. Even though both these Baluze's collections contain fragments of Carolingian Lyonnais origin, nothing indicates this copy would or would not share the same origin or provenance.

The scattered remains of both these codices are reunited here in dedicated virtual reconstructions.

It it likely that other fragments, now scattered in Lyon 788 and/or Baluze's collections, also belong together and were not identified as such yet.